Homa Hoodfar: 'Her time is running out,' Concordia colleagues say

They call on Canadian and Irish governments to put pressure on Iran to release her from Evin prison

Karen Seidman, Montreal Gazette

Updated: September 7, 2016

Marc Lafrance, with Emer O'Toole, Kimberly Manning, Charles Draimin and Françoise Naudillon at a news conference Wednesday. “It is unbearable for us,” Lafrance says, “but we are in awe of her resilience in the face of such conditions.”Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette

The start of the school year has only highlighted the increasingly perilous situation for scholar Homa Hoodfar, say her concerned colleagues at Concordia University, who believe she should be back working with students rather than held captive in a notoriously brutal Iranian prison.

On Wednesday, they made an urgent appeal for the Iranian, Canadian and Irish governments to do everythingpossible to facilitate her release.

Kimberly Manning, principal of Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute, said at a news conference that Hoodfar’s deteriorating health is of great concern and, since the strategy of keeping the situation out of the media to enable a quiet resolution hasn’t been working, it is now time to raise the volume on calls for her release and to begin targeted actions to put pressure on the Iranian government.

“This is an emergency, a life or death situation,” Manning said. “We don’t even know if she’s alive.”

Hoodfar, a professor emerita and respected anthropologist, has been held in Iran’s Evin prison on fabricated charges since June 6, colleagues say, and her health is failing. The family has been informed that she has been hospitalized and she was apparently barely conscious last week.

Hoodfar is 65 and suffers from a neurological condition (myasthenia gravis), and suffered a mild stroke last year.

Hoodfar’s case bears a striking — and alarming — similarity to that of Montrealer Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who took pictures outside Evin prison in 2003 and was subsequently arrested and held in a solitary cell there before she was raped, tortured, beaten and killed.

The situation is made only more difficult by the fact that Canada doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Iran.

Hoodfar’s colleague and good friend, Marc Lafrance, a professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at Concordia, said it has been agonizing for anyone who knows the “kind-hearted” Hoodfar.

He said it is inconceivable to think she has been held in solitary confinement for more than 90 days in one of the world’s most dangerous prisons for “dabbling in feminism.”

“That leads to dark questions, like is she getting her medication? Food?” he asked. “It is unbearable for us but we are in awe of her resilience in the face of such conditions.”

He said he had dinner at her home before she left for Iran and that she had “no inkling that she might be in danger.”

Quite the contrary, he said, she was elated at the thought of going back because she loves the food, the people and the culture, and has been returning there almost annually for 30 years.

At the news conference attended by representatives of several Concordia faculties and CUFA, Manning and Lafrance said they have to be cautious about what actions to take so that the focus remains on getting Hoodfar home — not mixing it up with other issues, like those with an anti-Islamic agenda might want to do.

Nor does her incarceration speak to a growing concern about academic freedom, while it is always an ongoing worry, said Manning. More than 5,000 academics have signed a petition calling for her release.

Global Affairs Canada said the case remains a priority for the Canadian government amid growing concerns about the health, well-being and continued detention of Hoodfar.

The department is actively engaged in the case and doing everything it can to support the family, said Michael O’Shaughnessy, a spokesperson for GAC.

“In the absence of diplomatic representation of our own, we are working with countries of influence and pursuing the best course of action to press the case and secure her safe return to her family, friends and colleagues,” O’Shaughnessy said. “The challenges posed by the absence of a diplomatic presence cannot be underestimated.”

As someone who holds Canadian, Iranian and Irish citizenship, Hoodfar’s colleagues in the Irish studies department at Concordia have been engaging academics in Ireland to get involved.

“We are deeply concerned and are appealing to the Iranian government for mercy,” said Emer O’Toole, an assistant professor in the department. “People in Ireland are deeply touched by her story and she’s entitled to protection from the Irish government.”

Early Wednesday, academics gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Dublin to push for Hoodfar’s release, the first of several actions planned over the next few weeks to increase pressure on Iranian officials.

CUFA has made Hoodfar’s return a priority, and her worsening condition has only made their task more pressing, said accountancy professor Charles Draimin.

“We have no illusions about the difficulty of bringing her back to Canada — but we won’t give up,” he said.

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